May 2004

Students earn prestigious scholarships
Four UM students recently raked in prestigious Udall and Goldwater scholarships.

UM continued its trend of excellence in the Udall Scholarship competition with three students named recipients of the 2004 scholarship.

Lauren Caldwell, a junior in biology from Fort Wayne, Ind.; Dawson Dunning, a junior in wildlife biology from Otter; and Sierra Howlett, a junior in Native American studies and sociology from Arlee; were among the 80 students nationwide to be selected as 2004 Udall Scholars.

Caldwell (who also earned a $26,000 Truman Scholarship this spring), Dunning and Howlett bring the total number of UM students to earn Udall Scholarships to 16 since 1999. They were the only Udall recipients chosen this year from a Montana university or college.

The $5,000 scholarships are presented annually to juniors and seniors studying in fields related to the environment, and to Native Americans in fields related to health care or tribal policy. The scholarships are named after Morris Udall, who represented Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives for 30 years.

The Goldwater winners for the 2004-05 academic year are Amanda Ng, a senior in biological sciences from Bozeman, and Dawson. Each will receive up to $7,500 for tuition, fees, books and room and board.

Founded in 1986, the Goldwater Scholarship Program honors Sen. Barry Goldwater and is designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields.

The winners were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,113 student candidates who were nominated by faculty members at colleges and universities nationwide. Most of the 310 winners intend to obtain a doctoral degree.

In the past six years, UM students have won 26 large national scholarships — two Truman, eight Goldwater and 16 Udall. UM currently is tied with Cornell for the Udall Foundation’s No. 1 ranking for scholarships awarded. Since the scholarship’s inception in 1996, UM and Cornell have had more Udall scholars than all universities in the nation.

For information, contact:
Rita.Munzenrider@mso.umt.edu
University Relations
(406) 243-2522

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